Recumbent Seats

This is the most visited page on my blog. I guess this is the last thing on our list of “to do’s” when building a bike. Even if you own a commercial bike, often the seat is an area where you can improve its performance and/or comfort.

Terry Wood Strip Seat

Terry used a Performer seat as inspiration. The Performer seat weighted in at 1800 grams.

LFWD carbon mesh seat by John Tetz

Mr. Tetz has shared the building of this excellent low weight carbon mesh seat. At 1 lb. 6 oz, the carbon seat is trim, stiff, yet it still gives the breathability of a mesh seat. He has plenty of illustrated pictures of the process to make his presentation understandable. I’ve not worked with CF before but I can see this being my first CF project.

Barnett Williams Style Seat

As much as I like the cool look and comfort of the anAtomic Seat, I decided to use the Barnett Williams style seat on my DeltaWolf. I find I can spend several hours in this seat and not be hurting from the ride. At least the part that touches the seat not hurting.

I first sewed my seat as in the picture above per the normal instructions. I guess this works for some, but over a few rides mine sagged. So I redid it as below. I sewed in a 1/4 inch strip of aluminum ( I think 1/8 inch rod would work also) down each side of the fabric, burnt holes in the fabric with a wood burning set and laced it with some 1/4 inch braided rope. After it sagged a little, I just re-tightened the rope to pull out the sag. The rope helps support the heavy part where you sit. I only re-tightened the rope one time. Hard to explain, easy to do. Just time consuming to sew it up.

I’ve had five different seats on this bike and I like the Barnett Williams Style Seat the best.

Say Hello to Miss Mollie Wallie Pasquallie

Update on Barnett Williams Seat.

After about a year the sharp edges of the conduit rails begin to work through the fabric on all 4 corners. Sorry I didn’t get pictures. The rails are of 1/2″ conduit. I couldn’t find a plug that would fit 1/2″ conduit at my local hardware store so I bought some rubber feet made for stools. The only wear points were at these corners, the rest of the seat showed little wear although I ride almost daily. These are the rubber stool feet. I’ll see if this helps a year or two from now.

Plywood Seats

This week I started my first attempt at building a curved plywood seat for my recumbent trike. I give all the credit for this to Edgar K. Atkins/atombikes (atombikes@gmail.com) You can get all the information and a PDF template for building the mold from his web site. PDF of anATOMic Seat Recumbent Bike Seat Plans. This looks like a good solution with several mounting and trimming options. I like the looks.

Laminated Plywood

There are links to other plans at the bottom of this page. This seat is made of 2 thicknesses of 1/4 inch birch plywood. I’ll see in a few days if this will require another layer or not.

I may have to remove the seat upright and weld in a new one, I cannot get enough recline to the seat to keep from slipping down. A little more curve to the seat section might be nice also. If I use this seat, I’ll have to cut some decorative slits in the seat. I wear jeans a lot when I ride and the seam in the back of the jeans rubs in the wrong spot. This seat is quite labor intensive but I already have several changes that will make it go more quickly. I know my trike is still not painted. I plan to put on a mid-drive next week and will paint after that. Later EDIT Here is what worked best for me. Make sure that you cut the birch plywood grain short on the finished seat side. If you cut it grain long it will crack on the surface, or at least the test that I did cracked. Soak the wood for 24 hours. Leave each layer in the press for 24 hours and when you glue them together, leave that in the press for 24 hours. Takes me 4 days to make a 2 thickness plywood seat.

Rans Style Seat

Edgar K Atkins as included in his atomBLASTER Low Racer plans instructions to a seat that looks somewhat like a Rans Style Seat. I was unable to capture a picture of the seat, but the instructions began on page 27 of the PDF file.

Carbon Fiber Seat

Eric, BROL user Kragasaur, has built a professional quality carbon fiber recumbent seat for one of his carbon fiber bikes. I really like his approach to building. If it doesn’t come out right the first time, do it again better. He has shared all of his trials so it will hopefully help the rest of use avoid the pitfalls. All of his finished products looks great.

Aluminum Seat

Here is a very nice padded aluminum seat built by AZ spinner. The information is somewhat scattered in this thread. You’ll have to scroll through it. Nice build on the trike

Spinner is a very accomplished builder and has had some very innovative ideas. He has now built a python and made a tool for shaping his aluminum seat. Here is a link to the Articulator build. The seat build is around post #61.

I always like watching Spinner’s builds.

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Fiberglass Seat

Although I’ve not built anything from fiberglass, I’ve always thought they were nice looking and very versatile. Cycling Llama has a two part blog of his creation.

Fiberglass Over Wood

Here is a great thread on BROL for a fiberglass over wood seat by Bent Rider Member Terry. The thread goes in several directions by other users with good information. Check it out here.

N55 Polycarbonate Seat

The N55 XYZNODES Recumbent Trike has a unique seat made of 3mm polycarbonate plate. I immediately have questions about it. In my region it looks like it could be very hot during the summer as it would not breathe. How much support would it give you as you peddle? Of course I’ve not used this seat but as you can see (or not see the clear poly) it looks neat. If you want something different, here is a place to start.